photo of Tommy Hall from the Austin Chronicle

[Jon Ford]

The story Gerry tells about Tommy  Hall  and  amateurish, opportunistic pot 
dealing sounds like typical Tommy behavior to me. He was into small-time 
dealing back in Austin in 1964. I remember when I left for college up north, 
  I had no money but a fairly good stereo, which I traded to Tommy  for a 
few baggies of pretty high grade stuff. I thought I got the best of the 
deal, but I think maybe it was a guilt-trade, because of the way he had  
taken advantage of my naivete  earlier that year, when  he convinced me to 
drive to Mexico to pick up some weed down in Piedras Negras ( a pretty good 
way to get busted, as  dealers there were known to  turn in their customers 
for a reward) . I waited around in my car for an hour or so, but Tommy 
returned empty-handed , so we drove back the same night, barely staying 
awake with the radio  in my old Plymouth coupe turned up as high as it would 
go . He must have liked my car ( an unusual 49 Plymouth coupe with a 
giant-sized trunk) because  he borrowed it from me a couple of weeks later 
to drive  to Waco to pick up some more pot there. I have no idea if the deal 
turned out well for him or not, because  he dropped off the car late that 
evening and slunk away in the darkness. The Plymouth had a blown piston, 
probably from either high-speed driving or his failure to check the oil.  He 
never apologized for that one, and I never did get the car fixed right.

Jon



>From: "Gerry Storm" <mesmo@gilanet.com>
>Reply-To: austin-ghetto-list@pairlist.net
>To: <austin-ghetto-list@pairlist.net>
>Subject: Re: photo of Tommy Hall from the Austin Chronicle
>Date: Tue, 14 Sep 2004 09:14:28 -0700
>
>I heard a Tommy Hall story around this time (early '70's). He, like many
>residents of the H/A, was augmenting his income dealing a little pot. 
Hed
>had ripped off some guys who had fronted him pot, kept the money. When 
they
>tried to collect he came up with a plea in which he identified himself 
and
>his immediate friends as the spiritual heirarchy of the hippy movement. 
"You
>have to support us," he told them, "in the same manner as the 
Indians
>support their holymen. We are doing the heavy thinking to assure the
>survival of the soul of the movement."
>
>Apparently it worked. He didn't get killed or even beat up...but no one 
in
>their right mind ever fronted him any weed again. I few years later he
>probably would have had a much less tolerant result as the biz turned 
into a
>real biz and got hard.
>G
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "gilbert shelton" <shelton@noos.fr>
>To: <austin-ghetto-list@pairlist.net>
>Sent: Tuesday, September 14, 2004 7:31 AM
>Subject: Re: photo of Tommy Hall from the Austin Chronicle
>
>
> > The last time I saw Tommy Hall was sometime in the early to middle 
70's
> > in a supermarket on Haight Street by Golden Gate Park in San 
Francisco.
> > I didn't recognize him with his beard and scruffy look, even after 
he
> > asked me, "Hey, do you know a guy named Gilbert 
Shelton?"  After he told
> > me who he was (I still didn't know how to answer his question) he 
told
> > me how great things were now in the Haight-Ashbury, with big 
parties and
> > live concerts every weekend in the park ( I had seen no evidence 
of such
> > a thing even though I lived in the neighborhood too at the time).  
We
> > didn't talk about philosophy.  I think maybe I had told him a long 
time
> > previously that I wasn't looking for a guru.  He and Clementine 
lived
> > next door to me when I lived in an apartment at 907 W. 22nd Street 
in
> > '63-'64.  They, and Claude Allen, were in the building to the west 
of
> > me;  Wayne and Honor Johnson and also Bob Finnel were in the 
building to
> > the east (Finnel died of heart problems five or so years ago).  
Bill and
> > Pat Helmer and their kids lived on the corner to the east, two or 
three
> > houses down.  Upstairs from me, where David Dean had previously 
lived,
> > was Jesse Purifoy and his family.  Jesse was a mathematician who 
later,
> > while teaching at some other university, used the school computer 
(as I
> > heard) to make a fortune on the stock market.  They fired him when 
they
> > found out, of course, but what did he care?  It's a great story, 
whether
> > it's true or not.  H. Ross Perot made his fortune in a similar 
way,
> > except he used computers belonging to the government of the United
> > States, that is to say, YOU AND ME THE TAXPAYERS, which is not so 
great
> > a story.
> >
> > Gilbert
> >
> >
> > Michael Eisenstadt wrote:
> >
> > >                 Name: tommy.jpg
> > >    tommy.jpg    Type: JPEG Image (image/jpeg)
> > >             Encoding: base64
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>

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